Pilot Saves Rescuers on Niagara Falls

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A Canadian helicopter pilot was being hailed Sunday as a hero
after mounting a daring weekend rescue, plucking two New York
policemen from their stranded boat in swirling waters just above
Niagara Falls.

The Toronto Star newspaper reported that the US officers -- who
themselves were out on the water overnight to rescue four
teenagers trapped on their powerless motorboat -- had become
disoriented in blinding fog, and dropped anchor within earshot of
the crashing water to avoid going over the falls.

"They could hear the falls, they could see the falls, they could
smell the falls. It was a desperate situation for them," Ruedi
Hafen, the Canada-based helicopter pilot called on to perform the
rescue in US waters, told the Star.

The boat was some 275 meters (900 feet) from the crest of
Horseshoe Falls, and Hafen said the anchor most likely saved them
from being swept over the 53-meter (174-foot) falls to their
deaths.

"If the anchor would have let go they would have had no chance.
They would have gone over," he said.

Hafen, who owns a private firm that conducts helicopter tours
over the falls, said he was awakened at dawn Saturday after a
shore-based rescue failed.